Ayatollah Isa Qasem ‘red line’ for Bahraini revolutionaries

In an interview with Rasa News Agency, Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Ja’far Alawi, one of the leaders of Bahrain’s Islamic Action Society, explained that the charges brought against Shaykh Ali Salman, a prominent Shi’ite cleric and opposition leader, are inaccurate and without evidence.

His Eminence explained that Shaykh Ali Salman invited the Bahraini people to national unity and added that the Al Khalifa regime has only offered unsubstantial and unfounded arguments for the reasons why they have removed the secretary-general of al-Wefaq from the Bahraini political scene by sentencing him to four years in prison. This is while Shaykh Ali Salman has always insisted on the peaceful nature of the Bahraini revolution, which began in 2011.

Last week, Bahrain condemned Shaykh Ali Salman to four years in prison on charges related to the alleged incitement against the ruling system.

“The Al Khalifa regime has removed the heads of the revolutionary groups, such as Ibrahim Sharif al-Sayyid, the general-secretary of the secular-liberal National Democratic Action Society (Wa’d) and Shaykh Ali Salman, the secretary-general of the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, in an attempt to the Bahraini peoples’ revolution and take them away from the political arena,” he said.Hujjat al-Islam Alawi stressed that the Al Khalifa regime’s actions are illegal and added that the Al Khalifa regime cannot stop the Bahraini people’s revolution by suppressing them and their legitimate rights.

He also condemned any possible aggression against Ayatollah Isa Qasem, the spiritual leader of Bahraini Shi’ites, saying that any aggression against him would be considered as a “red line” by the revolutionaries. “The Al Khalifa regime knows well that that any actions taken against Ayatollah Isa Qasem will have serious effects and a very negative outcome for their regime,” he said in his phone call with Rasa News correspondent.

The senior member of Islamic Action Society referred to the United States’ role in the trial of Shaykh Ali Salman, saying that the US had strongly pressed the al-Wefaq Islamic Society to participate in parliamentary and city council elections in December 2014. They wanted al-Wefaq to participate in Al Khalifa crimes, but when al-Wefaq refused, they took the decision to arrest Shaykh Ali Salman.